Goldie

"I looked in the mirror and went 'De Niro , Tyson and now Goldie from Wolverhampton… yes!’" - Goldie on dating Naomi Campbell

Clifford Joseph Price, aka Goldie, shot to fame as a DJ/musician specialising in the jungle and drum‘n’bass genres. He is particularly known for his trademark gold teeth but his name actually originates from the gold dreadlocks he sported in the 1980s. He is also a successful actor, having appeared in several films, including The World is Not Enough and Snatch. In 2002, he published his autobiography Nine Lives, which he co-wrote with Paul Gorman.

MAGNETISM

Goldie has had a fair bit of success with the ladies over the years. He had a relationship with Björk for several years and fellow drum 'n' bass head, DJ Kemistry, who died in 1999. Goldie has also dated a number of supermodels including Stella Tennant and Naomi Campbell, whom he labelled demanding and draining. In 2002, he married model Sonjia Ashby, a fashion designer and former lapdancer, but they divorced in 2005.

SUCCESS

There's more to Britain's most famous drum 'n' bass DJ than meets the eye. Aside from his success in music, Goldie who started out as a graffiti artist in the Midlands regularly takes part in art exhibitions around the world. Goldie recently gained plaudits for his conducting performances on Maestro, a reality TV show on which a group of celebrities competed to perform at BBC Proms In The Park. In 2008 he released an album ‘Sine Tempus’ which is also the soundtrack to his forthcoming film of the same name. The album is described as a coming-of-age story of a young paintbrush artist.

Goldie Biography

Goldie was born on 19 September 1965 in Walsall to a Jamaican foundry worker and Scottish pub singer. He had a difficult start as his father left soon after he was born. Afterwards, he was put up for adoption and raised in childcare homes by several foster parents.

During his early life, Goldie narrowly avoided a life of crime by immersing himself in hip-hop culture as a break-dancer and graffiti artist. This was unlike his brother who has spent much of his life in and out of prison.

goldie’s early career

Goldie started his career as a member of the breakdance crew, Westside, in Wolverhampton. Later on he joined the breakdance crew, B-boys and furthered his career as a graffiti artist in the West Midlands. He raised his profile when took part in the largest ever graffiti art battle alongside Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja, who later formed Massive Attack. After dabbling in his artistic work, he moved to the US where he sold gold teeth in New York and Miami. He continued this business when he returned to Britain in 1988.

goldie’s musical breakthrough

Goldie’s musical breakthrough came in 1991 when his then girlfriend, DJ Kemistry introduced him to the pioneering jungle/drum‘n’bass producers Dennis 'Dego' McFarlane and Mark 'Marc Mac' Clair, known as 4hero. His first track was called "Ajak Project". This was soon followed by "Killa Muffin" b/w "Krisp Biscuit" and the "Dark Rider" EP, which were put out under a different moniker, Rufige Cru. He followed this up with the track, "Terminator", which was a huge hit in the jungle scene. In 1993 he released Angel and a year later he set up his own record label Metalheadz. This was a huge success and his first globally released album, Timeless, shot straight into the charts at number seven, bringing drum‘n’bass to a mass audience. The album's title track was a 21-minute symphonic piece called "Inner City Life" which sold over 15,000 copies on vinyl. Timeless was followed by his second album Saturnz Return in 1998 which opened with an hour long orchestral drum‘n’bass piece called "Mother". The album also featured appearances by David Bowie and Noel Gallagher of Oasis.

goldie and the silver screen

Not content with being successful in the music arena, Goldie has also gained acclaim through his acting role. He has appeared in several big budget films, famously playing Bullion in The World is Not Enough in 1999 as well taking parts in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch in 2000 and The Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp in 1999.

Golde become a household name by playing the role of Angel in EastEnders between 2001-02 and was the first celebrity to be evicted from the second series of Celebrity Big Brother.

goldie and maestro

Goldie was not an obvious choice to take part in the BBC reality TV show, Maestro, in which eight celebrities learned how to conduct a classical orchestra. However, his natural talent won over both audiences and the classical music establishment. The chair of the expert panel, Sir Roger Norrington said, “You’re unconventional and you can't even read music but you're a natural conductor”.

Part of Goldie's evident enthusiasm for Maestro sprung from his growing realisation that drum‘n’bass and classical music have more in common than he'd imagined. “Drum‘n’bass has always been a misunderstood genre,” says Goldie. “It has always put outsiders off. Unless you're a specialist, you think it's not for you. And classical is the same.”

In the weeks following Goldie's performance of Beethoven's Symphony No 5 in C minor, high street music shop HMV said that demand for the classical piece had increased by 295 per cent since the TV show.

goldie’s son on the run

In September 2008 it was announced that Goldie's 22-year-old son, Jason, was on the run from police after being named as a suspect in a murder case. Goldie told the Daily Mirror newspaper that he was devastated and felt that he had failed in his duties as a father.